Michele Bachmann’s Stance on Evolution Demolished by High School Student

Michele Bachmann, as virtually everyone knows, is currently deciding whether she’s going to make a run for the Tea Party, oops, I meant to say, Republican, nomination for president. What most don’t know, though, is that her educational policies are being challenged by an amazing high school student from Baton Rouge, La. You should get to know this student, Zack Kopplin, and his efforts because he’s likely to make a difference.

I’ve written about Zack previously because both his story and his commitment are incredibly impressive. As I first noted, he recently began an effort to repeal an atrocious stealth-creationism law in Louisiana. The law, the Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008, encourages attacks on evolution to be taught in Louisiana’s public schools under the banner of critical thinking. This is the only state law of its sort in the country and, as Zack so well points out, Louisiana students interested in science are being done a huge disservice by its very existence.

Zack’s work didn’t stop there. He wrote a petition that was adopted as Change.org’s featured one of the week where it has amassed more than 65,000 supporters. And, as I reported in April, in his most extraordinary effort, he collected the endorsement of 43 individuals who won a Nobel Prize in science.

Which brings me back to Michele Bachmann. Not only is Bachmann a fan of creationism and its anti-intellectual offshoot, intelligent design, she’s made some outlandish claims about the pseudoscientific subject. For example, she’s asserted, “there is a controversy among scientists about whether evolution is a fact … hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel prizes, believe in intelligent design.”

Zack has now challenged Bachmann on her claims. Using a poker analogy and the huge number of scientists who have endorsed evolution, in general, and his repeal effort, in particular, Zack haswritten, “Congresswoman Bachmann, I see your ‘hundreds’ of scientists, and raise you millions of scientists.”

Given the strength of the hand he has, he doesn’t stop there.

For the next hand, I raise you 43 Nobel Laureate scientists. That’s right: 43 Nobel Laureate scientists have endorsed our effort to repeal Louisiana’s creationism law. … Congresswoman Bachmann, you claim that Nobel Laureates support creationism. Show me your hand. If you want to be taken seriously by voters while you run for President, back up your claims with facts. Can you match 43 Nobel Laureates, or do you fold?

It would be difficult for someone with a sincere interest in science education not to take Zack Kopplin’s challenge seriously. Having said that, I fully expect that Michele Bachmann will completely ignore Zack, the voice of the scientific community, the combined pleas of 43 Nobel scientists and thousands of religious leaders.

All of this reminds me of a Sunday afternoon a couple of years ago when I was in Lambeau Field with my two sons watching the Packers play the Bears. After a controversial and costly penalty was called against the Packers, the referee began to give a convoluted explanation of his ruling. The entire crowd of 73,000 plus was completely silent while the odd explanation was being delivered over the PA system. Then, all of a sudden, one fan with a booming voice that could be heard throughout the entire stadium shouted, “Stop making shit up!”

4 thoughts on “Michele Bachmann’s Stance on Evolution Demolished by High School Student”

Ha, yup. Gotta watch out for that reality! It’s always trying to trick us with observable facts and scientific evidence!

Seriously though, Evolution just makes sense. Other organisms through time and reproductive selection become other organisms. It’s observable right now! Ever notice how the majority of women prefer men with light or no back hair. We’re ending up with less and less people who look like 70s pornstars. That’s sexual selection. That’s evolution. You can look back in the fossil record and see the way organisms bodies have changed. In the long run though, it doesn’t really matter if certain people don’t believe in it. As long as the people who matter (the scientists) believe in Evolution, the general populace can think what they want.

It would be horrible if scientists didn’t believe in Evolution cause then we’d be doing scientific experiments with a faulty foundation. Like the “doctors” of the Middle Ages who believed in blood letting and potions and the “four humors”. If someone wants to believe that a mysterious man in the sky is the one who created us, that’s fine. But to push that other people should believe them also and completely ignore the scientific evidence that helps us distinguish what reality is … that’s just sad and unfortunate for all of humanity.